Features

Big-spending Real humbled

Author: John Harris
Date: 21/03/2010
Football betting

Real Madrid watched on in horror as their expensively assembled team was dumped out of the Champions League last week.

After investing more than £250million on big-name players last summer the Spanish giants were expected to be crowned champions of Europe.

Lyon, whose budget is minuscule by contrast, refused to listen to the hype and sent them packing from the round of 16.

But the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka, Karim Benzema, Xabi Alonso and Raul Albiol are not alone when it comes to the biggest disappointments in sport.

Who will win this year's Champions League? - Latest Football Betting

New Zealand rugby union team

The number one ranked team in the International Rugby Board World Rankings and the Team of the Year in 2005, 2006 and 2008 have one major omission from their curriculum vitae.

Aside from their success in the inaugural competition on home soil in 1987, the All Blacks have never won the World Cup.

New Zealand are the only team to top their pool in every World Cup so far and not to lose a pool match but have been to only one final where they lost to South Africa in 2005. It is a dismal record they are keen to end when they host the next tournament in 2011.

Audley Harrison

The Londoner had the world of heavyweight boxing at his feet when he won gold as an amateur at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

He signed a £1million deal with the BBC on turning pro but quickly lost the support of the public following a string of easy wins against questionable opponents.

'A-Force' has tried and failed with several comeback attempts with his latest being a fight with Albert Sosnowski for the European Boxing Union heavyweight title next month.

United States basketball team

The USA's national basketball team was something of an embarrassment between winning gold at the 1992 and 2008 Olympics.

The nadir came at the 2002 World Championship where they finished a woeful sixth on home soil after losing to the likes of Argentina and Yugoslavia.

Perhaps sensing the impending doom, NBA stars Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O'Neal and Kevin Garnett also passed up opportunities to play on the team.

British Davis Cup team

British tennis is just one defeat away from slipping into the lowest tier of Davis Cup tennis such is their current predicament.

The 3-2 defeat to lowly Lithuania two weeks ago has led to calls for a once proud tennis nation to rip up the blueprint it is working to and start again.

Captain John Lloyd has already resigned and LTA chief executive Roger Draper is also under pressure to lose his job, while a defeat to Turkey in July would see GB drop to the depths of Europe/African Zone Group III.

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